The information in application Ser. No. 771,855, filed on Feb. 23, 1977, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,222 is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
This invention relates broadly to the art of liquid pumps to be used in mines or the like.
Coal mines, and other types of mines often have the problem of water accumulation therein and it is, therefore, necessary to exhaust such water from the mines. It is rather common practice to place electrical or gasoline powered pumps in the vicinity of liquid puddles in mines to pump the liquids from mines through hoses extending outside the mines. A difficulty with such pump systems is that the electrical energy must be extended thereto or they must be periodically fueled. In addition to the extra effort and expense associated with providing energy to these systems, they are somewhat unsafe in that both gasoline and electric motors can cause combustion of coal dust, etc. Fire suppression equipment and/or explosion-proof electric motors are sometimes required to reduce this hazard, however, such equipment is unduly expensive. Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a pump assembly for use in mines, and the like, which utilizes safe energy already available at most locations within mines so that the pump assembly does not require the stringing of additional electrical wires thereto, the periodic refueling thereof, or the utilization of expensive equipment, but which, is safer than most prior-art systems.
Still another difficulty with the prior art systems described above is that their long hoses are costly and are sometimes cumbersome in the mines. Thus, it is another object of this invention to provide a pump system which does not necessarily require the use of long hoses extending through mines but yet evacuates liquids from the mines.
Yet another difficulty with many prior-art pumping systems is that electrical, gasoline, or other types of independent motive systems used therefor are expensive to buy and unduly subject to malfunctions during operation thereof. Therefore, it is another object of this invention to provide a pump system which does not require an independent motive source to drive it.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a pumping system for use in mines and the like which is uncomplicated in structure, easy to mount, and relatively inexpensive.